Modem radios and entertainment centers typically include recording equipment. It is, for example, common for a home entertainment center to include a tape recording apparatus wherein a user may select to record portions of an incoming audio broadcast and record to tape. Similarly, such entertainment centers typically include TV receiving, tuning and display apparatus whereby one may tune to video signals, such as regular TV broadcasts. In the area of TV and other displayable video, it is common for such centers to include video cassette recording (VCR) apparatus whereby one may select to record portions of tuned video signals, so the video display may be reproduced at a later time for whatever purpose. Outside the home environment it is also common for radios, such as automobile radios, to include a magnetic tape player, allowing a user to elect to play a tape rather than a tuned-in radio presentation. Car radios, however, typically do not include recording apparatus, nor any facility for a user to record on the tape apparatus portions of the tuned radio channel that may be playing at any point in time.
Even with the existence and use of the prior art apparatus described above there is an unmet need. It often happens, for example, that a person is taken a bit by surprise by a desire to record a portion of a video or audio presentation. What usually happens is that the person watching a TV presentation or listening to a radio broadcast realizes too late that he or she would like to have a recording of all or part of what has just been presented. Of course, in some cases, the presentation may be available for purchase from the broadcaster, but this is usually not the case.
What is clearly needed is a means of automatically recording an incoming data stream in a circular manner, meaning that after a fixed time period of sequential recording, the recording apparatus will continue to record by overwriting the already recorded material in the same order as originally recorded, the oldest data being overwritten first. The net effect will be, at any moment in time, while the apparatus is recording, a recorded body of matter representing a time period prior to the present moment equal to the recorded time period represented by the magnitude of the memory apparatus being used.
In embodiments of this invention a presentation device, such as a radio or TV apparatus, will always have a recorded version of the last “x” minutes or hours of the presentation, so a user always has access to material he or she may at any moment desire to review or reproduce. The magnitude of “x” is alterable by the magnitude of the recording apparatus, and may vary from seconds to many hours in different embodiments.